27/43 I give on the opposite page a reproduction of the most charming picture by Gerard Dou that I know--"The Young Housekeeper" at The Hague. This is a very miracle of painting in every inch, and yet the pains that have been expended upon the cabbage and the fish are not for a moment disproportionate: the cabbage and the fish, for all their finish, remain subordinate and appropriate details. The picture is the picture of the mother and the children. 795 in the Ryks Museum at Amsterdam--is, I believe, more generally admired, but "The Young Housekeeper" is the better. |